Jordan Sonnenblick

Maverick Falconer is just starting middle school and he wishes he were a hero like his father because maybe then he could deal with his mother's drinking and series of abusive boyfriends, not to mention the kids who bully him in middle school (pretty muchthe same ones who bullied him in elementary school)--but as the year passes he begins to realize that other kids have problems too, and maybe if they can all survive sixth-grade things will get better....

YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
When the going gets tough–fake it!
Look, I didn’t ask to move to Nowheresville, Pennsylvania. I stick out here like a squid on Mount Everest. The way I figure it, blending in won’t make people like me. Or solve my huge family problems. Or get me noticed by Woody, the fearless, wildhaired, guitar-rocking girl of my dreams–without getting my butt kicked by her huge, evil...

Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.